Another traveler, who gave her name as Um Sara, said she and her 16-year-old daughter also planned to go to Egypt before the elections. But they did not plan to return.
"It is going to be so bad here during the elections and worse after," she said. "There will be lots of car bombs and explosions. I don't know in which one of them me or my daughter will die."
Because she is divorced, Um Sara said, there would be no one to care for her daughter if something happened to her. She said she works for an Egyptian company, which helped arrange their visas.
"My friend lost her daughter in a car bomb in the street last week," she said. "I do not want to lose my daughter, too."
A third customer at the travel agency, Suhair, was making arrangements to go with her three children elsewhere in the Persian Gulf region, where she said her husband found a job six months ago.
"He was going to come back to Baghdad to visit us next month, but after we heard about the elections, we expected it to be so dangerous," said Suhair, 45, who declined to give her last name. "I asked him not to come here and suggested we go there instead."
Suhair said her husband, an electrical engineer, agreed and told her to sell all their belongings.
"He has a good job there," she said. "He used to be a military officer, and we used to live a good, safe life. He lost his job, and we lost our safety, so now we are leaving. I will not come back until Iraq will become the Iraq we dream to have."
Suhair's daughter Fatima, 18, who had been sitting quietly at her side, raised her head. "But we will lose all the childhood friends we grew up with," she said in a low voice.
At another travel agency nearby, Abu Ahmed, 41, bought three airline tickets to Amman, Jordan, for his family. Although he is a member of Baghdad's electoral commission, he said he planned to leave within days.
"I will not stay in Baghdad during the election," Abu Ahmed said. He said that when he arrived home last week, three strange men in a blue sedan were waiting outside and one of them put a knife to his neck.
"I think that was enough warning for me," he said.
Sudad, the travel agent, said she, too, would leave -- if she did not have so much business making departure arrangements for everyone else.
Asked if she intended to vote, she just laughed and said, "Come on."
